I think sallying forth is a bad idea right now, seeing as we don't have much to work with
We should try and make at least basic weapons/tools

Instate some good monitors, and start trying to save/plant the seeds.

Other options are:

• Fortify
• Look at those weird rods
• What's goo physiology? or Reproduction?
• How about investigating the slime mold on the spoiled fruit a bit more closely. They are none thinking /slimes/, but is there a use for them? (Like goo mass?)
• etc etc, sally forth

(bipedal with no visible head protrusion).

Membranes rapidly blackening and turning stiff with resolve, all but two of your tribe take up hammers and short knives and whip themselves into the kind of militant frenzy unseen in your species - unless family is lost.

You know each is prepared to burn and dry out if it will ensure a safe haven for their pups, reclaim a measure of quiet in the night or pull back the stray one from the jaws of death. Above all things, they are selfless to those they know closely - so they file into the dark and you pull yourself together for one last huzzah. You have lived for what some would say is too long, but you were never afraid to fight. The water from the walls slows to a trickle as you go.

Moving slowly through the deep black, you and your people step across twitching nests of metal lines before coming to a barren glass light strung above a door. Muffled noise can be heard behind. Everyone smells blood.

The largest slime with the densest muscle fibers raises their hammer and flashes blue once before crushing both hinges and forcing their way through the door, scintillating in molten colors as their compatriots swarm through the door.

19.

There are two things there unlike any member of your species - sunburned, dense endoskeletal walkers with visible dimorphism, heads covered in black bristles and mouths overflowing with the yellow teeth of a characteristic omnivore. They have partially asphyxiated the stray one by submerging him in water and slit one of his pseudopods for cooking fuel.

The thinner one, greasy hair bound in a sort of head-tail, reacts quickly and sends a glass jar shattering through the chest of an incoming slime (dousing the entryway in viscous blood) but is eventually pinned by a tribesman wielding a sharpened shovel and strangled into unconsciousness. The brawnier specimen takes a hammer blow to the kneecap and crumples with a sickening crack, clutching its head and curling into the fetal position.

You pull the lost slime out of the pool of oil-slick water. They will recover given time, and flash green in profound relief.

Among the two's humble possessions, you find nets containing several dozen squab, a can containing coiled gut-string, several flexible rods of wood, flint arrowheads and a cold, blue permanent light of the sort you have found and lost in cities older than this one.

Carrying this and the two aliens, you retreat back to the confines of the main hall and place them under secure watch in the Wood Hall. Neither is in any condition to communicate at the moment; one has visible purple marks on its neck and the other is currently suffering from a nasty compound fracture.

>Explore. You only scraped the surface of the Deep Tunnel infrastructure and have not made any serious forays beyond the mouth of the Hollowed Marketplace. What could be living in either? What can you find, and which outposts can you make?
>Build. The barricades protecting against the lurkers in the Deep Tunnels are weak and incomplete, and judging by the alarming speed and precision which one of them showed during your break-in further reinforcement may be advised. There would also almost certainly be time to help make the area more comfortable to your kin by removing sharp edges from surfaces around your settlement.
>Study. There are many unanswered questions down here, things that could be studied to improve the lot of your tribe. Strange symbols appear on things hanging from the ceiling, on the cylinders and other things. Perhaps it's some kind of language? Besides this, you believe that your magic may need to be turned to other purposes besides water gathering soon.
>Worship. The sheer scale of the construction around you and your tribe-kin leaves them amazed in wonder. What kind of hands could've built something so magnificent? The excited youths create stories of giant beings who shaped themselves into the structures as a gift to slimekind. Perhaps they are right? This requires further meditation on.
>Descend again. Back into the black - exact more penalties, shatter more outposts, take more slaves of those who would burn you.
>Interrogate. Perhaps, with some medical treatment, you could get answers from the hostages even in their weakened state - language will be fair game first, followed by motives and negotiation.
>Other. Perhaps you have another plan?

Tribe: Twelve slime creatures and eighteen mature, fully detached larvae. With water plentiful, they are quickly accumulating mass.
- The Hermit.
- Unidentified hostages.
Technology:
- Simple metallic hand tools, amounting to some cast-iron lump hammers, fasteners and serrated knives stamped from cheap metal.
- Shaped remnant of barrel used to collect dripping water.
- Permanent light that produces a dull glow and recharges in sunlight.
- The base materials for archery.
Infrastructure:
Hollowed Marketplace (subterranean)
- Deep Tunnels (light barricade)
- Trickling Walls
- Four halls, not fully searched.
-- Tool hall, contains dozens of rusted metal tools, completely unsuited for use by your kin.
-- Wood hall. The wood has rotted and broken now, though the use of it in the first place puzzles you.
-- Food hall, the place where your tribe-kin found the fruits, the vegetables, the bars and cylinders.
Foods: A broken barrel of fermented fruit mash, dragged to base camp by foraging slimes. Your tribe has ceased to use it for food, as it emits a rank smell and has been fully taken over by a gelatinous film.
- Bars of...something? They were stored in the same place as the other foods, maybe they contain some as well?
- The metal cylinders seem to contain food according to the images on them.
- Large quantity of fruit and vegetables. They require mashing before they can be consumed properly.
- Several dozen squab, which will provide a rich boost in protein and additional calcium from dissolving the bones.
Resources: Charred brick and shards of ceramic line the streets above the marketplace, and the structure itself may hold more valuable tools. Wood is plentiful among the disused storerooms but is often rotten beyond repair. Flint arrowheads and gut were obtained in great supply from the endoskeletals.
Magic: Dew Point Hieroglyphs
- A set of ritual inscriptions that cause the material they are marked with to rapidly condense water onto its surface, accumulating a thin, permanent membrane of water which can be siphoned for breeding or consumption.
Religion: You do not worship.

Victory Conditions
Palatial Control
Rule by right of blood and arms will be yours if only you can secure the fortress on the hill.
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